Drop in Student Test Scores in Hawaii Stirs Concern

A dramatic, highly publicized drop in the standardized-test scores
of Hawaii students has shaken the education community in the state and
generated an outpouring of concern from school administrators,
teachers, and parents.

The outcry began when the state education department released data
this month showing that 42 percent of 10th graders and 37 percent of
3rd graders scored below average in reading on a new edition of the
Stanford Achievement Test administered in the spring. On the version of
the test given last year, 24 percent of both 10th and 3rd graders had
scored below average in reading.

The decline in scores, headlined in local newspapers and on
television broadcasts, drew a barrage of letters and calls from parents
and prompted a directive from State Superintendent of Education Charles
T. Toguchi calling for "immediate action to improve student
achievement'' on several fronts.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association also entered the fray by
charging that the drop in scores reflects a 25-year decline in the
proportion of state and local revenues devoted to public education. The
union called on the legislature to place a higher priority on education
funding.

Analyzing the Causes

Although the test is given to students in grades 3, 6, 8, and 10,
the reading scores for 3rd and 10th graders showed the most
deterioration between 1991 and 1992.

The percentages of students scoring below average in mathematics
rose slightly, from 18 percent to 23 percent for 3rd graders and from
21 percent to 23 percent for 10th graders. But those figures were still
"well within reason compared to national norms,'' said Selvin
Chin-Chance, the administrator of the test-development section of the
state education department.

Officials said Hawaii students typically have lower verbal than math
scores because of the high percentage of immigrant families in which
English is the second language.

Mr. Chin-Chance also noted that the "most significant changes'' in
the new test were in the reading portion, which included longer
passages and more emphasis on differentiating fact from opinion.

Education officials are trying to determine more precisely what
contributed to the drop, he noted, by analyzing the content of the new
test and the impact of such factors as demographics and student
mobility.

Joanne M. Lenke, the executive vice president of the Psychological
Corporation, the San Antonio-based publisher of the test, said in an
interview that Hawaii's experience falls "within the realm of
expectation'' when a revised test is first used.

The dip in scores may have been more striking in Hawaii than
elsewhere, Ms. Lenke noted, because the state not only introduced the
new version of the test, but also began using a newer set of norms to
score it this year. Most school systems switching to the new edition
had already been using the newer norms, which were introduced in 1986,
she said.

Ms. Lenke added that Hawaii's method of reporting results "can look
like a bigger difference than reporting a percentile rank'' of a
typical student, as most states do.

An Unbaked Cake

But such technical considerations and caveats may not be very
reassuring to people in Hawaii. Mr. Chin-Chance acknowledged that the
test scores have raised questions among some critics about the
effectiveness of a major school-reform effort launched three years ago
to decentralize some state functions and phase in school- and
community-based management.

Many of those efforts are only now getting under way, however.
Linking the reforms to lower test scores would be like "taking a cake
out of the oven in the middle of the baking process and then saying
obviously the new recipe doesn't work,'' Mr. Chin-Chance argued.

The department launched an "action plan'' to address declining
student achievement in 1991. But in his Oct. 1 directive, Mr. Toguchi
called on teachers to more systematically identify steps they can take
to meet the needs of their students and to set targets for boosting
results over the next four years.

The directive also encourages "test-wiseness instruction'' to hone
students' test-taking skills, and highlights state efforts to offer
schools guidance on what students should know at various ages and to
train teachers in "how test scores can be used to adjust
instruction.''

But Sharon Mahoe, the president of the state teachers' union, argued
that "the potential for real change'' cannot be fulfilled until school
funding improves.

The H.S.T.A. has argued that a steady decline in the share of state
spending devoted to education has lowered per-pupil spending, raised
pupil-teacher ratios in most grades, and led to overcrowded classes and
schools in "shameful disrepair.''

"It is neither a secret, nor a coincidence, that the scores of our
students and the amount of money devoted to public education in Hawaii
are plunging downward together,'' said Ms. Mahoe.

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